2018 Foster Care & Education SummitBehavior, School Discipline, and Trauma

Clynita Grafenreed, Shelley Williams, and Mary YoungJuly 10, 2018

School Based Mental Health

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What’s happening?

“. . . an ever increasing problem of elementary school age children with out of control behaviors so severe that they are currently being sent to a NeuroPsychiatric Center via ambulance because they are destroying classrooms and attacking teachers. The number of teens sent to the District Alternative Education Program for drug and alcohol abuse has continued to increase. The current drugs of choice include Xanax and heroin. One teen tried to hang herself in the bathroom at the alternative school. Teachers, police officers and nurses report that self-cutting is on the rise. The district-wide School Health Advisory Council unanimously identified mental health as the number one health issue needing to be addressed in the district.”

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All children face some mental health problems/issues, including:

• Anxiety about school performance

• Problems dealing with parents & teachers

• Unhealthy peer pressure• Common developmental,

adjustment problems• Fears about starting school• School phobia

• Dealing with death or divorce• Feeling depressed or

overwhelmed• Drug or alcohol use• Suicidal ideation• Worrying about sexuality• Facing tough decisions• Considering dropping out of

school

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• 50% of lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14• 71% of children referred to Juvenile Probation have a

diagnosable mental illness• 2/3 of U.S. children have experienced one or more

traumatic incidents in their lives

2003 Texas Juvenile Probation Commission

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Adapted from Holt & Jordan, Ohio Dept. of Education

The kids who need the most love will ask for it in the most unloving ways!

Typical Development Developmental Trauma

Cognition

Social/ Emotional

Regulation

Survival

Cognition

Social/ Emotional

Regulation

Survival

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Of students who DO receive mental health services, over 75% receive those services

in schools

(Duchnowski, Kutash, & Friedman, 2002; Power, Eiraldi, Clarke, Mazzuca & Krain, 2005; Rones & Hoagwood, 2000; Wade, Mansour, & Guo, 2008)

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What is the continuum of “School Mental Health” Services?

• Universal prevention services provided to all students that seek to promote positive mental health and educational success

• Targeted prevention and intervention services that seek to improve social-emotional skills and behaviors linked to positive mental health and educational success

• Intensive intervention services that seek to help students effectively cope with social-emotional and behavioral issues that impact positive mental health and educational success

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Acronyms• PBIS: Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports• Restorative Justice• CIS: Community In Schools• SEL: Social and Emotional Learning• CBITS: Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in

Schools

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Urban Applications of School-Wide Positive Behavior Support

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What can you do???

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Trauma-Sensitive Schools

• Recognize the prevalence & impact of traumatic occurrence in students’ lives

• Create a flexible framework that provides universal supports, is sensitive to the unique needs of students & is mindful of avoiding re-traumatization.

Adapted from Helping Traumatized Children Learn

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Discipline

• Discipline provides guidance, focuses on prevention, enhances communication, models respect, and embraces natural consequences. It teaches fairness, responsibility, life skills, and problem solving.

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Shift your thinking

“What’s happening here?” VERSUS

“What’s wrong with this child?”

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Trainings• Greater Houston Area:

• Center for School Behavioral Health• State Wide: Mental Health First Aid

• Local Mental Health Authorities and Mental Health of America• http://www.txbehaviorsupport.org/• https://texas.kognito.com/

• Austin• https://www.traumatexas.com/trauma-trainings/

• Dallas/Statewide• https://child.tcu.edu/about-us/tbri/

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Restorative Practice, Administrative and Teacher Perspectives

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• A paradigm shift in how we think about student discipline.

• An offshoot of “Restorative Justice” in the criminal justice system.

• An alternative to “exclusionary” discipline.

• Not a quick or easy fix. • Something you need to learn about.

Restorative Discipline

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Traditional system asks: • What rule was

broken?• Who did it?• What is the

punishment?

Shift From… Shift To...Restorative Discipline asks:

• What happened?• Who has been affected?• What are we going to do to make

things right?

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Restorative Discipline Is Restorative Discipline Is Not

A Process A Product or a Program

A Tool to Change a School’s Climate A Tool to Fix “Broken” Children

Contextual Standardized- One Size Fits All

TASSP June 2016 Philip Carney

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Traditional: Accountability means the student who broke the rule is punished.

Restorative: Accountability means the student who caused harm comes to understand the harm caused and has the duty to repair the damage to the relationship.

Accountability

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Compare ApproachesTraditional

• A school rule is broken. • Focus in on establishing

guilt (who?)• Accountability=

Punishment• Focus in on offender and

victim is ignored• Rules and intent outweigh

whether outcome is positive or negative

Restorative• People and relationships are

harmed.• Focus in on problem solving by

expressing feelings and needs.• Accountability=Understanding

impact of actions and repairing the harm.

• Victim, offender, and school community have a role in justice.

• Offender responsible for behavior and repairing the harm, working toward positive outcomes.

Cheri Kahn Region 20

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Tier 1 Practices/Approaches

• Occur before anything goes wrong

• Are more proactive in nature

• Focus on the building of connections, relationships, and community

Tier 2 & Tier 3 Practices/Approaches

• Most often occur in response to something that has gone wrong

• Are more reactive in nature

• Focus on meaningful accountability, restoration, and building support systems for change

TASSP June 2016 Philip Carney

Tiered Approach

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• Unique as in country setting• Residential Treatment Facility• Charter School with Orenda Education• K-12 Campus• Enrollment 70 (2016-2017 educated 110)• Teachers certified in Special Education and ESL• 68% Mobility Rate• Most children enter school at Tier 3 if

comparing to PBIS • 2nd year of Restorative Discipline• Trauma Informed Care Training

New Horizons School

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• RS has made our children aware of how their actions (positive and negative) can effect other peers in the class.

• RS has directly contributed to the decline of absences on campus.

• RS has taught our children self-accountability i.e. taking responsibility for their own actions.

• Trying to motivate teachers to believe in RS and to trust it works.

• Making sure that RS is applied correctly and it's concepts are understood.

• Making sure teachers WANT to build relationships with students so RS will work in the first place.

Positive ChallengeTeacher Perspective

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• Students do not get "kicked out of school" and are given chances to "regulate" rather than belonging in an all or nothing system.

• The focus is shifted to looking for the growth in students rather than the black/white, right/wrong.

• Classroom building circles, respect agreement circles, content circles, are all happening formally and informally at our campus.

• When a student returns to class and there is not a platform established for this conversation, there is tension built rather than relationships restored.

Positive ChallengeTeacher Perspective

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• Restorative is relationship based is a driving force with dealing with our student population.

• This connection piece is vital when trying to hold students accountable.

• Students are able to de-escalate a lot easier because of this relationship.

• Is it perfect? No. Has it fixed all of our discipline problems ? No.

• I am able to teach and have less disruptions for the most part which allows for the students to feel safe, and feel they are actually at school to learn.

PositiveTeacher Perspective

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• The challenging piece for me personally is having those conversations when they return to class, or when I'm wanting the students to be accountable for their actions.

• To have one on one time with a student when they return to school , shouldn't be a rushed process.

• I should have time with these students, if I truly want the behavior to change. I need conversations to happen at this point.

Challenge

Teacher Perspective

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Student (Len) was cussing and screaming at his peer. Len would walk over to the student to intimidate the peer. The teacher attempted to redirect, but Len refused to follow the redirection. Len was adamant about harming peer. Teacher continued to address Len in a soft voice. Teacher offered the cool down area in classroom. Len refused. Finally student agreed to take a break outside classroom.

IncidentLen went to break area. Talked about big feelings. Len was upset because peer kept talking about his dad. Len stated that his dad died in June and this would be the 1 year anniversary of his death. (Dad committed suicide) Len calmed down and was able to return to class and be successful.

ResultSuccess Story

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Incident ResultTina had shown great improvement, lately she has been loud, talkative, and has had a bit of an attitude. Today for math when a few students were being loud, she was laughing very loudly with them. When the class was asked to quiet down, she turned up her volume on the computer. She stood up and asked to see Mr. Randy. She was sent to him.

I pulled her from PLP to discuss why the change in behavior. She said there were things at home bothering her. She added that she felt everyone was ganging up on me (the teacher) and that she didn't want any part of it and that's why she asked to go see Mr. Randy.

Success Story

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TASSP June 2016 Philip Carney

Resources

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Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS): Supporting ALL Students

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PBIS isFramework for enhancing adoption & implementation of a

Continuum of evidence-based interventions to achieve

Academically & behaviorally important outcomes for

All students

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PBIS is a framework for support delivery.

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Experimental Research on SWPBISBradshaw, C.P., Koth, C.W., Thornton, L.A., & Leaf, P.J. (2009). Altering school climate through school-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports: Findings from

a group-randomized effectiveness trial. Prevention Science, 10(2), 100-115

Bradshaw, C.P., Koth, C.W., Bevans, K.B., Ialongo, N., & Leaf, P.J. (2008). The impact of school-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) on the organizational health of elementary schools. School Psychology Quarterly, 23(4), 462-473.

Bradshaw, C. P., Mitchell, M. M., & Leaf, P. J. (2010). Examining the effects of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports on student outcomes: Results from a randomized controlled effectiveness trial in elementary schools. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 12, 133-148.

Bradshaw, C.P., Reinke, W. M., Brown, L. D., Bevans, K.B., & Leaf, P.J. (2008). Implementation of school-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) in elementary schools: Observations from a randomized trial. Education & Treatment of Children, 31, 1-26.

Bradshaw, C., Waasdorp, T., Leaf. P., (2012 )Effects of School-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports on child behavior problems and adjustment. Pediatrics, 130(5) 1136-1145.

Horner, R., Sugai, G., Smolkowski, K., Eber, L., Nakasato, J., Todd, A., & Esperanza, J., (2009). A randomized, wait-list controlled effectiveness trial assessing school-wide positive behavior support in elementary schools. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 11, 133-145.

Horner, R. H., Sugai, G., & Anderson, C. M. (2010). Examining the evidence base for school-wide positive behavior support. Focus on Exceptionality, 42(8), 1-14.Ross, S. W., Endrulat, N. R., & Horner, R. H. (2012). Adult outcomes of school-wide positive behavior support.

Journal of Positive Behavioral Interventions. 14(2) 118-128.Waasdorp, T., Bradshaw, C., & Leaf , P., (2012) The Impact of Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and

Supports on Bullying and Peer Rejection: A Randomized Controlled Effectiveness Trial. Archive of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine. 2012;166(2):149-156

Bradshaw, C. P., Pas, E. T., Goldweber, A., Rosenberg, M., & Leaf, P. (2012). Integrating schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports with tier 2 coaching to student support teams: The PBISplus Model. Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 5(3), 177-193. doi:10.1080/1754730x.2012.707429

Freeman, J., Simonsen, B., McCoach D.B., Sugai, G., Lombardi, A., & Horner, ( submitted) Implementation Effects of School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports on Academic, Attendance, and Behavior Outcomes in High Schools.

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SupportingCulturally

KnowledgeableStaff Behavior

Supporting Culturally Valid

DecisionMaking

Supporting Culturally Relevant Evidence-based Interventions

PRACTICES

OUTCOMES

Supporting Important Culturally Equitable Academic & Social Behavior Competence

George Sugai, PBIS Leadership Forum September 2017

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PBIS Implementation Framework• We organize our resources

• Multi-Tier Mapping, Gap Analysis

• So kids get help early• Actions based on outcomes (data!), not procedures

• We do stuff that’s likely to work• Evidence-Based interventions

• We provide supports to staff to do it right• Fidelity: Benchmarks of Quality

• And make sure they’re successful• Coaching and Support• Progress monitoring and performance feedback• Problem-Solving process• Increasing levels of intensity

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The Educator’s Intervention Tire Shop

Mental Health Services

Restorative Practices

Social Emotional Learning

Culturally Responsive Practices

Classroom Management

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School Leadership Implementation

Effective interventions

Data based problem solving

School TeamCoaching You can change the

tires- but don’t throw out the bike!!!

PBIS provides the Framework to Install Evidenced Based Practices

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Tertiary Prevention:• Function based support• Wraparound services• Person-centered planning

Primary Prevention:• Teach school –wide expectations• Proactive school-wide discipline• Positive reinforcement• Effective instruction• Parent engagement

Secondary Prevention:• Check in/Check out• Targeted social skills instruction• Peer-based supports• Social skills club

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Big Ideas

• PBIS promotes effective decision making• PBIS focuses on measurable outcomes• PBIS provides systems to support effective

implementation• PBIS is a framework to install evidence-based

practices such as mental health, trauma-informed care, restorative practices, and SEL

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Contact InformationClynita Grafenreed, Ph.D.

Texas Behavior Support (TBS) Network Region 4 Education Service Center

cgrafenreed@esc4.net

Shelley WilliamsNew Horizons Principal

Orenda Educationshelley.williams@orendaeducation.org

Mary Young, MSWCenter for School Behavioral Health

Mental Health America of Greater Houstonmyoung@mhahouston.org

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Thank you for attending this presentation!